Amazing to enjoy with hot tea or a glass of mulled wine - they also make a wonderful Christmas gift.
They are among the most famous German desserts: they are fragrant, tasty and, above all, they give an atmosphere that immediately makes one think of a house full of love.
They are Lebkuchen, the gingerbread cookies, originating in the German tradition and by extension also in South Tyrol and Austria. Would you like to try making them at home?
You need some spices, an oven and an afternoon to play together with the children.
What you need
For the recipe you need to get the following:
- 300 grams of wheat flour,
- 200 grams of almond flour,
- 200 grams of sugar,
- 2 tablespoons honey,
- 2 eggs,
- 40 grams of butter
- 1 teaspoon baking powder.
Mix the ingredients with a ground spice mixture consisting of one tablespoon cinnamon and two tablespoons of cloves, coriander, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger and star anise.
Leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight; the next day take it out and get a rolling pin.
Baking and decorating
Roll out the dough leaving it at a height of about one centimetre. You can cut it out with small shapes or prepare small balls to bake 12 minutes in a 180 °C oven.
In the traditional recipe, the dough balls are placed on a round wafer, so it is easier to pull them off the baking sheet.
Let the cookies cool and decorate them with the coloured icings.
For the icing:
- 150 grams of powdered sugar,
- a scant tablespoon of water.
You can dip them in 60 percent dark chocolate and then draw with the icing, white or coloured, made by mixing the powdered sugar and the scant tablespoon of water.
If you feel unsure, find ready-made icings at the supermarket to make squiggles, zigzags, borders and dashes.
To eat, to hang and to store
The preparation of lebkuchen is a celebration that fills the house with aromas and scents. Once ready, if you resist the temptation to eat them all right away, tie them with ribbons to hang on the Christmas tree.
These cookies keep soft, for more than two months, inside a tin box.
Wrapped in transparent paper and sealed with a red bow they become a wonderful gift for friends, neighbours, teachers and all the people we love.
And if you happen to go to the Christmas markets in Nuremberg or Munich, you will find lebkuchen, along with many other delicacies, in almost every corner of the city.
